Snippet of Family Law 3

This has been a hard book to do snippets late in the book. It gives too much away.

“Gordon, I have Custom Tailored Genes on the screen and the man is offering me an appointment for nine in the morning, day after tomorrow. Would you go with me?” Lee asked.
“They on the same clock as here?” Gordon asked.
“Yeah, I asked and he told me they’ve been on the same clock as the moon almost since their independence. He called it Zulu time,” Lee said. “Damned if I know why.”
“That’s why we buy web updates,” Gordon reminded her.
“Yeah, yeah, I know. I’ll look it up but he’s waiting. Want to go with me?” Lee repeated.
“Sure, what else am I going to do that would be half as much fun?” Gordon said gravely.
“Yes, I’m confirming that appointment,” Lee spoke at the com and ended the call. She stayed there however. If she didn’t look up Zulu time Gordon would bug her to death.
“You can never learn just one thing,” Lee said much later.
“You said that like it’s a bad thing,” Gordon accused.
“Once in awhile a simple answer would be nice. How am I going to remember everything if I live hundreds of years? We’ll all go crazy. No wonder April worried about it.”
Gordon looked tempted to speak, and then looked away. He was being polite today.
“I know, you have to assume we aren’t already crazy for that to happen,” Lee said, before he could.
“You’re having this conversation fine without me now,” Gordon observed.
“Here’s the deal. Zulu time is the same as Greenwich Mean Time, which is the time at the observatory in England where they established the zero meridian for Earth,” Lee said.
“They got all the Earthies to agree on something like that? I’m amazed.” Gordon said.
“Not at first,” Lee agreed. “But this was at just the right time when sailing ships needed such a standard for navigation, and about the time they had clocks good enough to help navigate. But England was apparently a very big deal right then, and had the biggest navy. I guessing here, but I bet they made a lot of the charts too.
“But the Zulu time is from zero, since it’s the zero meridian. But I tell you… nobody ever does things the easy way and just says zero time. It seems they used something called an acrophonic alphabet when radio was new. If it was all scratchy and garbled you’d spell out the message letter by letter with an agreed upon set of easily recognized words. So Zero Time became Zulu time. Doesn’t seem like much of an improvement to me, but it was faithful to the system.”
Gordon looked up scowling. “They have better radios now. They have satellite relays and fiber optics and digital processing. Why wouldn’t they drop the acrophonic stuff?”
“I suspect they think it sounds suave and military,” Lee said.
Gordon nodded. “They’d probably say it’s cool. I read that phrase has come back for the fifth time recently. Slang is like that. It recycles.”

18 Responses to Snippet of Family Law 3

  1. Joyce August 13, 2015 at 8:50 am #

    Cool, man! Or, neato, Daddio!
    Can’t wait for the new book to be released!

    • Mac August 13, 2015 at 11:57 am #

      Ah, you DID read it.

      • Joyce August 13, 2015 at 10:06 pm #

        Of course! You write it, I read it!

  2. gallandro_83 August 13, 2015 at 10:00 am #

    Awesome can’t wait for the new book. I’m wondering if you know how quickly you can expect turn around from the editor your using. The book seems to be going well but will we see the book before September?

    • Mac August 13, 2015 at 11:56 am #

      It’s iffy – but he has already started editing the first portion.

  3. Gary Roulston August 13, 2015 at 10:06 am #

    I am so looking forward to getting my hands on the whole book!

    • Mac August 13, 2015 at 11:57 am #

      Just your eyeballs greedy!

      • aze August 13, 2015 at 7:20 pm #

        My withdrawal symptoms are getting worse. I really need the next book.

  4. Katie August 14, 2015 at 3:38 am #

    I can’t wait!
    I’ve been rereading April series…. and the 2 earlier family law series in anticipation!

    I was lucky earlier I guess….. I discovered your books and then could read all the April books and the family law books….. (and pop them onto my kindle) and then had to wait…..

    But it looks like the end of the wait might be in sight!

    • Mac August 14, 2015 at 7:17 am #

      Yeah getting close

  5. Melvyn August 14, 2015 at 6:23 am #

    What he said. I’ve finished the umpteenth re read of Family Law and I’ m two thirds of the way through TLVOTLF in preparation for this one. So any time in the next week or two would be good. ?

    • Mac August 14, 2015 at 7:17 am #

      Thou shalt not pressure the writer…

  6. Mark August 14, 2015 at 2:24 pm #

    So…if Lee was wondering: Once in awhile a simple answer would be nice. How am I going to remember everything if I live hundreds of years? We’ll all go crazy. No wonder April worried about it.”, then does that mean that the April Series and Family Law Series are same universe?

    Also: that comment would seem to imply that either April had become an Extremely VIP whose journals, papers, etc had been published and studied, or that Lee is related to her?

    • Mac August 14, 2015 at 2:38 pm #

      This book will tie the series together. But there is a time gap sufficient that more April books are quite possible. Certainly more than I can write at 68 years old. In fact April #7 is already started.

      • John Leggett August 15, 2015 at 7:47 am #

        This is good, I have just about memorized April 1-6. In fact I put myself to sleep at night coming up with plot lines for April 7.

    • aze August 15, 2015 at 1:40 pm #

      >> […] April had become an Extremely VIP […] or that Lee is related to her? <<
      Of course April is a VIP, at least when you write the history of Home. So either Lee talked to April (if she is still alive) or she read some of the history of Home. If Lee was related, then her parents would have had a Home or maybe Luna sponsored exploration mission. They wouldn't have chosen the USNA as their port of registry.

  7. Al August 14, 2015 at 3:10 pm #

    I read Family Law and loved it. I then read the sequel and loved it. I debated and finally got April, read it and loved it. I then got the rest of the April series and loved them. But I do have two complaints. First complaint, you don’t write fast enough (although I will take quality which your books are over quantity) and if you are worried that at 68 you might not be able to write all the books I want to read from you, please get the life extension therapy from Jelly and use it. I don’t want to miss out on any of the books you want to write.

    I am reluctant to post items that have obviously missed editing in a public forum. If you have a spot to send them where you can review them in private I would like that information. Not that there are many but coach vs couch, someone speaking who is obviously not present. These don’t detract from the story for me as I like to say I read typo’s as I make enough.

    • Mac August 14, 2015 at 3:48 pm #

      I’m glad you like the stories. I’m just a high school graduate who never did very well in English class. I am however trying to make each book a little better. I’ve gone back and re-edited a couple and will continue to do that. You are welcome to send any errors and suggestions to mchandler@ameritech.net – if you have older versions some of the errors may be corrected already. I usually wait until I have several corrections before I burden Amazon’s net with distributing a new version. I suspect we are on the edge of some real life extension therapies. We’ll see if we hang around long enough to use them.

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